About

Space Frontier is a game designed by Aaron Dona and John Mathison.

This is a link to Space Frontier's current Rulebook. We appreciate all feedback that might help us continue to improve it.

Space Frontier is a
game for 2-4 players that takes between 45 minutes to 2 hours to play depending on the number of players. Each player starts the game with a command ship. This massive ship acts as the player's home base, research center, and construction yard. All players start at the Warp Gate
and move outwards, exploring space and staking their claim in the
galaxy as they go. While exploring, players must simultaneously harvest resources, build
an armada of fleets, and complete various missions. Initiating combat against rival players may be temping, but is not always the best course of action.

The goal of the Space Frontier is for players to spread their influence throughout the galaxy. Influence is gained by completing missions, succeeding in military conquest, trading
with various guilds, and researching ancient and powerful relic technologies.
Players can be as cooperative or antagonistic with each other as they wish.
Thus, games can be played and won where military might reigns supreme, or
without a shot being fired. The randomly generated space map, missions, and
trading opportunities ensure that each game of Space Frontier plays out differently.

“There was something about the rules that just kind of grabbed me, and I was really excited to get a look at it and get a play of it; and I have, now, with my gaming group. The game is an absolute blast.” -UndeadViking

During each game the space map expands outwards as players explore. When a
player reaches the edge of charted space, they can add new tiles to the map.
Since the concentration and frequency of resources vary from game to game, new strategies will have to be developed on the fly to determine the best path to victory.

Players construct fleets consisting of 3 ship types, each of which have different strengths and weaknesses. Each
fleet also has limited space, making intelligent fleet composition and formation more important than simply outproducing
your opponents.

Market shards on each
planet create a changing market that players may use to trade with planets for
resources. Most market shards are associated with different guilds. Loyalty to a specific guild will grant influence, making trade
a viable path to victory.

Players collect
ancient artifacts in order to research powerful Relic Technology cards. These cards, if equipped, grant influence towards victory and give fleets valuable bonuses. However, they are vulnerable to be stolen by opposing players through combat.

"You can be assured these guys want their product to be the best it can be, and that you'll have an attractive and easy to learn from rulebook with your final product.”
-Capps at Rulebook Review

"The game is fantastic... I loved the epic feel of it, and it is something different from Eclipse. This one felt more like I was playing my old computer games for whatever reason." -UndeadViking

Discount on finished game's MSRP: Each backer copy of Space Frontier comes at a 20% discount from the final MSRP.

Instant access to Print and Play: Any pledge level gets you permanent access to PDFs of all game components so you can print it out and play right away.

Be a part of the game's development: We care what you think! We're responsive and receptive to any feedback or suggestions, and we'd like nothing more than to hear what backers think of the game.

Get the game first: Kickstarter backers will get their games shipped the moment the production is finished, before the game appears in any store.

Improve the game for Everyone: If we exceed our funding goal, improved components such as custom battle dice and miniature plastic ships can be added. Without your support here, right now, it is unlikely these components will be able to be part of Space Frontier.

$35,000 is a lot of money, and we realize this, but we wanted Space Frontier to be of the highest quality. For this reason, we chose Panda Manufacturing to produce the game. Panda has a great reputation for working well with US based game companies and delivering quality results. Panda also has a 1,500 unit minimum production run policy. Based on our components, Panda gave us a quote for $13,653 for a minimum sized production run. Each box is going to cost approximately $8 to ship based on its size and weight, so that adds another $12,000 in money we need. At the total of $25,653, we still need to pay for various things. Freight shipping from China, Shipping fulfillment (not the shipping itself, but putting on all the labels and warehouse storage) barcodes, safety testing, tariff tax etc. all cost money. We estimate this to cost around $3,500. That puts us at needing $29,150 or so and Kickstarter and Amazon take as much as a 10% cut, so we need that too bringing us to about $32,500 or so. We need the remaining ~$2,500 to pay artists and just have a little bit of extra money if/when things go wrong.

With such a large minimum print run, initial cost is much higher, but we are able to keep the price of each individual game low and more affordable. The more pledges we get, the more games we can produce, bringing the cost of each copy down. With those savings, we can continue to add cooler and higher quality components that can be enjoyed by everyone.

At this point the artwork for the game is not completely finished. We have some pieces already, but we specifically need art for most of the cards and the ships of 3 player factions. Once that is completed, excess money can be used to improve every aspect of the game's appearance and quality.

Space Frontier, as it is designed now, has everything that it needs. That does not however stop us from seeking to improve it so we can make the game the best that it can be. Intuitive custom combat dice could remove the need for players to cross reference and memorize charts and just look at the dice to easily determine combat results. Custom resource markers that replace wooden cubes are also a nice way for players to understand the game at a glance.

In that same vein, miniatures are always a great way to enhance a game. The game doesn't need them to work, but miniature spaceships make players just that much more immersed in the universe and are a step up from the current functional but flat cardboard cutouts. We have some exciting prototype ship miniatures in the works, but the cost of producing these is high. We'll have to therefor cross that bridge when we come to it after we've already exceeded our minimum pledge requirements.

Spaceship Miniatures Are in The Works:

We are in the process of designing the models now, but will need to surpass our funding goal in order to include them with the base copy of Space Frontier.

Miniatures could replace or enhance many of our cardboard components and make the game even more intuitive and visually impressive.

Thanks for taking the time to look at our project page. We really appreciate it.

Risks and challenges

Space Frontier is our first Kickstarter Campaign. We've done extensive research and examined the challenges and successes of other projects to attempt to prepare for what lies ahead in the production process. While we've collected a lot of information, the simple fact is we have never brought a project all the way to manufacturing before. Despite this, I'm confident that Aaron and I are prepared to overcome any obstacles that arise. We're both resourceful people who are passionate about getting this project out into the world.

Another challenge is that we have a lot to do before production commences. The art's not all finished. We'll be playtesting and tweaking rules until we're sure they're airtight. Custom components need to be sculpted. These are things that all take time and we realize that backers want their board games sooner rather than latter. Juggling all those things while still keeping our release date is a daunting task. While we can't foresee every obstacle that might present itself along the way, we can promise that we'll be upfront and honest about the project's progress on every step of the way. If we run into a problem - you'll know, and you'll know what we plan to do to fix it.

Support

Select this reward

Pledge $1 or more
About $1.00

EVERY LITTLE BIT HELPS - Access to the full color print and play version of Space Frontier. This print and play will be updated continuously as the game evolves and you will always have access to the latest copy. All reward levels have access to the print and play version of the game.

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $100 or more
About $100

GUILD MASTER - One complete copy of the Space Frontier board game. In addition, backers at the Guild Master pledge level will get to name one of the game's four Trade Guilds and help us design their guild logo.

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $100 or more
About $100

PIRATE KING - One complete copy of the Space Frontier board game. In addition, backers at the Pirate King pledge level will get to name one of the game's four Pirate Cards and help us design their pirate insignia.

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $750 or more
About $750

EPIC SCALE - One custom copy of Space Frontier with all game elements other than cards and resource tokens at double+ their normal size. This EPIC version of Space Frontier will come with custom 3D printed ship miniatures that will be sized to fit the larger space map and come painted to a high standard.